Metal container with lid for semifluid and thick substances



April 15 1930.

A. NERRE M ET'AL CONTAINER WITH LID FOR SEMIFLUID AND THICK SUBSTANCES Filed. June 11, 1926 Fig.

Fig. 4.

Fig. 5-.

, Patented Apr. 15, 1930 UNITED STATES EQE ADOLF NERRE, OF BASEL, SWITZERLAND Application filed June 11, 1926, Serial No. 115,337, and in Switzerland August 18, 1925.

The usual containers for pasty substances such as fats, waxes, shoe cream and the like have among others the disadvantage that in opening and closing, the hands are easily soiled, since the edge of the container is smeared by the rag or brush used for taking up the contents further the layer thus formed between the edges of the container and the lid hardens and renders removal of the lid diflicult.

This disadvantage and other inconveniences are removed by the metal container with lid forming the object of the present invention. Here the box for the substance itself is freely placed into a larger container body provided with the lidand is held in position by means provided therein. Since the upper surface at least of the substance in the box may harden after slow use, and can then only be rendered usable after employ ing a solvent, according to the invention the intermediate space between the inner box and the outer container body is wholly or partly filled with a material impregnated with a volatile substance, which by evaporation maintains the upper surface of the substance in the box in usable condition, said material constituting at the same time an annular packing round about the inner box to maintain it in position.

It has already been proposed in cigar boxes to provide an external container and an inner container separated therefrom by air and held therein in its position by springs or the like, whereby a wet sponge is introduced into the structure to maintain cigars within the inner container in good condition of use.

The present invention, however, does not only consist in the provision of preserving 4 means to allow easy use of all. the contents of the inner box, but it allows also a very economic use of the volatile agent as well of the substance to be preserved and prevents the troublesome overrunning thereof as well as the disagreeable soiling of the hands holding the container when taking off said substance.

The accompanying drawings illustrate an example of the invention and three detail modifications.

Figure 1 is a vertical section.

Figure 2 is a plan view of the open container, and

Figures 3, d and 5 show various holding means, on a larger scale.

The outer container body 2') according to Figures 1 and 2 has a depressed bottom; in the depression of the bottom is located the box a for the material such as shoe cream. in order to hold the box a in its proper position within the container body 6 and to prevent tilting thereof, three springs f are provided in addition, as shown in Figure 2, one end of each of which is secured to theinside of the container body 6, for example by a rivet, while the inwardly bent ends bear against the outside of the box a. The annular space between the box a and the outer container body 6 is wholly or partly filled with a material m for instance of wadding or sponge, impregnated with a volatile'substance, which, by continual evaporation, it gives up to the upper layer of the substance in the inner box 0; and maintains this in the best possible condition, so that only an ordinary closure of the container Z) with the lid 65 after use of a part of the substance is necessary. The volatile substance must naturally be suited to the substance in the box a; for shoe cream, turpentine oil for example is suitable.

In the form shown in Figure 3, helically wound wires 0 serve to hold the box a, one end being made fast to the container body 5, or rotatably held thereon by a hollow rivet or the like, while the other end engages over the 35 edge of the box a by a hook. In the form shown in Figure 4, a small roller 6 is connected between two helically wound wires 0 and 0", the roller serving as a handle to facilitate manipulation of the holding members. One end of the wire 0' is secured to the container body 6 by a hollow rivet, the other end is introduced into the roller 6. Of the wire 0" one end is forked and engages over the upper edge of the box a, while the other end (as with the wire 0) is introduced into the roller 6. If it is desired to remove the box a from the container 6, the roller 6 is moved axially, in order to release the wire engage ment therewith, for example of the wire a. 100

In the form shown in Figure 5, flat spring holding members 7 are secured in upright position to the bottom of the container body and bear with their upwardly projecting parts against the outside of the inner box a,

Instead of these three springs, a spring rim corresponding to the annular part of the bot tom of the container body I; can be provided therein, which rim grips the inner box a m with the edges of an upwardly projecting slit flange, in a similar manner to the springs of Figure 5.

The container I) can obviously be used repeatedly to take full boxes at. The lid d of the outer container can be arranged to push on or screw on, and the container itself can be rovided with a device for lifting the pus ed-on lid.

What I claim is 2Q A metal container for semi-fluid and thick substances, such as fats, waxes, shoe cream and the like, comprising an outer box, a lid thereon, a piece of unperforated material in form of a box open at the top, freely inserted "in said outer box to constitute an inner box arranged to receive said substance as a compact filling, spring means to maintain same in the outer box with exclusion of any mutual contact between the side walls of both boxes when stripping off the substance and of any soiling of the hand holding the container and in such a position that an intermediate annular space is reserved between the side walls of said boxes, and a filling material as with a volatile fluidifying agent within said intermediate annular space, having a greater volume than the top layer of the substance within the inner box and giving off its volatile agent to saturate said top layer of smaller volume of the substance within the inner box,

for the purpose of realizing a concentric action of the volatile agent round about on the top layer of the substance in order to prevent same from solidifying and degradation. In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name this 1st day of June, 1926.

ADOLF NERRE. 

